Friday, February 28, 2014

Memories of
Mosaics is an online shop that brings mosaics to another level. The piece that took my attention is the great colorful guitar covered entirely with
tiles. The owner of the shop is Christine Burgess.

The artist has been working in mosaics for over 10 years now, mostly
doing keepsake mirrors and home decor items. But lately she’s been doing
special pieces including guitars, mannequins, steer heads and custom pieces. Christine
says that she
gets some help from her husband on building her bases but she does everything
else.

Where
did you get the idea for your business and when did you get started?

I
wanted to come up with a way I could preserve my keepsakes from my mom and dad.
I had jewelry, dishes, metal pins, bolo tiles etc. and decided to make a mosaic
mirror that would have the functionality of the mirror while displaying my
memories for me to see every day. After making the first mirror I realized that
other people might like to have the same thing so Memories in Mosaics was born.
This was in 2007.

How
did you start this passion for mosaics?

I
first started doing mosaic furniture and counter tops after browsing through
the "Parade of Homes" in Colorado back in early 2000. Being a
creative person I knew I could do what I had seen in the various homes so I
just dug right in. My first project was my guest bath countertop and
backsplash. It took a while but I was pleased with the finished product and
wish I had photos.

What
does it take to make one mosaic?

The
very first thing I do is lay out the various tiles, gems, jewelry etc. in the
colors I want to use. Next I decide what size mirror and base would work for my
design and ask my husband to cut and frame my base. I paint the the entire
frame and base including the back before I start the mosaic process. I
generally come up with my design in my head and go from there unless I am doing
a custom order. I lay out a section at a time then glue the pieces down. I cut
tiles from various dishes and place them as closely together as I can
eliminating wide grout lines unless the grout is part of the design.

Once it’s
all glued down I let it dry overnight and grout the next day. Choosing the
grout color can change the entire look of a piece so I sometimes play with this
by trying different dry grout colors in some of the spaces around the tiles.
Once I choose one I vacuum it out. The next step is to grout and let it dry. I
usually start to remove excess grout within the first 15 minutes to get the
majority of it off then let the piece dry. I spray a mist of water on the
entire piece about every half hour for the first 2 hours of drying to keep the
grout from cracking. The next day I remove the rest of the excess grout with a
sponge and several buckets of clean water and shine up the pieces. I always go
around each and every tile, gem, button, etc. with a toothpick to remove built
up grout. I like my pieces to be clean and have as much of the patterns and
textures show as possible. The last step is to touch up the frame with paint
then apply varnish. A large mosaic can take many days to complete.

Which
one is your best seller?

My
best seller is my mosaic mirrors with the “Fan” pattern on each corner. I
started this design several years ago and most of my custom orders are with
this style.

Christine
is currently doing a mid century modern mosaic table using ceramic and glass
tiles. She will be listing it in her shop soon. The artist also likes to make
custom furniture. However, due to the
high shipping costs she haven't added any to her shop. But right now, she am
taking some time off from her mosaics to work on her vintage shop on Esty. When
she’ll return she will be changing the style of her mosaics. She says she plans
on doing more guitars, mosaic scenes and even some mannequin torsos as it is
more challenging and somewhat different than the norm.

I
see a lot of people starting their business online. What do you think makes you
stand out from the crowd?

My
designs are different than many but mostly I believe it is the meticulous work
I put into each and every piece. I take the time to produce a clean well made
piece and have received many compliments for it.

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